Under federal law, gambling in the United States is regulated by the individual states, which have the primary responsibility for determining what forms of gaming activities may legally take place within their borders. Each state allowing legalized gambling has enacted its own laws specifying what type of gambling is permissible, where it may be conducted and who may participate. Approximately one-third of the states allow commercial casinos featuring games such as blackjack, slots and roulette. Others have passed legislation permitting alternate gambling operations like card rooms, pari-mutuel wagering and charitable gaming.
Certain states not wishing to authorize such gambling concerns may permit the operation of so-called “redemption games”. Redemption games typically require some level of skill and reward a player proportionally to his or her score. Generally, players accumulate credits that can be exchanged for limited-value, non-cash merchandise such as small toys, candy or food items.
One well known skill-based redemption game is a spinning reel game incorporating a “nudge” feature. In such a device, an electronic gaming machine has a video display showing a plurality of slot machine-type reels, each having a plurality of symbols. The player sees three symbols on each reel: the payline position (i.e., the center row of the reels) and the symbol immediately above and immediately below the payline position.
After depositing coins, bills or tickets into the machine, the player commences play, causing the reels to spin independent of one another. If the combination of symbols along the payline matches one of a predetermined set of winning combinations, the player is awarded a prize. The winning combinations are presented to the player on the display, usually next to the leftmost or rightmost reel. If, however, a winning combination is not achieved after the initial spin, the player is given the opportunity to “nudge” one or more of the reels (i.e., causing it to rotate up or down) in an attempt to achieve a winning combination.
This type of nudge game involves skill because the player might fail to nudge a reel in the proper direction to obtain an available winning combination. Alternatively, the player may nudge a winning combination off the payline. Certain nudge redemption games of this type do not allow a winning combination of reels symbols to appear along the payline after the initial spin. This ensures that the player can only win an award through the use of skill and not through pure chance.
Because redemption games are not intended to be a substitute for traditional gambling devices, strict limitations on the value of the awards they pay are typically put in place. For example, the statute of one jurisdiction authorizing the use of redemption games limits awards to $5 per “single play”. The challenge then becomes tracking the number of single plays occurring on the redemption games to ensure that the statutory limitation on award payouts has not been exceeded.
Accordingly, there is a need for a redemption gaming machine that accurately tracks the number of plays occurring to ensure that the limit on prize awards has not been exceeded.